The first Marmotte ride of the year

A guest wanted to ride the marmotte route and as I like it so much I never miss the opportunity and offered to go with him.

We set off a little earlier than normal about 7.20 as rain was forecast later in the day.
While climbing the Glandon we saw loads of marmottes out roaming, looking for food and playing around. I dion’t think I have ever seen so many at one time. All the sheep were up the mountains now for their summer holidays!

The descent of the Glandon was fantastic, the road is in great condition and there were no cars as it was still early.

As we turned right at the base and onto the valley road the guests gear cable broke and he was stuck in top gear – Ooops, help required.

We carried on to the next town and managed to get the cable replaced in a bike / chainsaw shop, a very odd place but they did it. This took about a hour.
On to the the Telegraph where we stopped for a sandwich prior to ascending. A French guy of about 65 years joined us as we were eating ,he was cycling 250 km on his old heavy mountain bike weighing in at 40kgs – respect.

Up the lovely Telegraph climb and down in to Valloire where it was time for a bar and a gel and a bottle top up. As we started out of the town we could see that the mountains ahead including the Galibier were in cloud. Not ten minutes later it poured down. When we arrived at the last restaurant the rain had stopped but the wind was so cold we left our jackets on for a while. We continued to the top where it was snowing very lightly, the Galibier is never an easy climb but always a good one.

There is still lots of snow on the north facing slopes which makes it ccccolder, about 1’c and the wind was blowing. Glad I had brought my wind proof over trousers saved me freezing on the way down. The viewsThe weather cleared and the views were fantastic as ever. Once at the col du Lautaret it was warmer.

Unfortunately it was a head wind all the way back home but always a great descent.

The guest carried on to finish the ride by doing Alpe d’Huez. Did I do Alpe d’Huez —– no.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 29th, 2013 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Cycling Events.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Skiing

Travel Locations

Useful Links

The contents of this website are provided for general information purposes only and do not constitute medical, legal, financial or other professional advice on any subject matter. All tips, guides and recommendations are followed at your own risk.See Full Terms & Conditions and our Privacy Policy.